In lieu of flowers, Canadians are being asked to donate to Broadbent’s new think tank for developing social democratic ideas

Former NDP leaders Jack Layton, right, and Ed Broadbent laugh during a campaign event in Ottawa on June 13, 2004.

By:Les WhittingtonOttawa Bureau, Published on Tue Aug 23 2011

OTTAWA—In an era of cynicism, Jack Layton inspired Canadians with hope that politicians can help build a better country, says Ed Broadbent, who is setting up a think-tank to pursue Layton’s social-democratic vision.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other leaders can learn something from the national outpouring of affection and grief over Layton’s passing, Broadbent told the Toronto Star.

“He opened Canadians to the prospect of having a positive form of politics,” said Broadbent, who led the NDP for 14 years.

“For a moment, and I hope it’s not just a moment, thousands of Canadians outside of the New Democratic Party are thinking positively about something political.”

Layton also showed “that politics can matter and need not be a set of aggressive, personal exchanges between leaders,” Broadbent said. Instead, “it can be a very positive thing.”

“It will be a challenge for us as a party to pick up on that and not let it go, and if I may say so, it should be a challenge to the other party leaders to see the response to Jack,” he said. The national outpouring of support is “not a partisan response but a response to the need to have a positive form of political discourse.”

Part of Layton’s legacy will be the creation of a left-wing think-tank with the potential to balance the influence of such right-wing policy centres such as the Manning Centre for Building Democracy, headed by former Reform chief Preston Manning.

In keeping with one of Layton’s last requests, his family has asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the new Broadbent Institute.

Broadbent says he didn’t know until Monday that Layton had made the request. By next month, Broadbent hopes to have the policy shop up and running. Drawing on contracted studies and volunteer work, the small, Ottawa-based organization will pursue the development of social democracy through research, education and training. It will rely on private fundraising.

“The agenda is social democracy — that’s the core set of values,” said Broadbent. But the institute will operate at arm’s length from the NDP. The idea is “to develop a set of programs, agendas and issues that reflect those values that the party in its wisdom may or may not pick up.”

The think-tank was Broadbent’s idea but it was Layton’s endorsement this spring that gave it momentum. With its forward-looking focus, the institute reflects Layton’s future orientation on political matters, Broadbent said.

“From our point of view — that is, the view of progressive Canadians, social democrats in particular — the only good thing about four years of a Harper government is that it gives us time to think a little more deeply and in a long- term way about what a social-democratic government might look like four years down the road,” Broadbent said.

Growing income inequality, health-care reform, the need to raise more government revenue, justice issues and cleaning up the environment are examples of what the institute will study.

Since, in Broadbent’s view, a majority of Canadians favour progressive policies, it’s important to have a think-tank to balance the work of the “right-wing Manning institute,” he said.

Speaking of the NDP’s future, Broadbent said “no one’s under any illusion of the challenge at the parliamentary level” created by Layton’s death. “He barely got his feet wet as the leader of the official Opposition. He was just there for a few weeks with a brand new caucus.”

But he said the words of Layton’s final public letter, which urged Canadians to believe in their ability to build a better country and a better world, will be valuable. “I’m sure it will serve as an inspiration for New Democrats to pick up where Jack left off,” Broadbent said.

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